Summary

When Charlie attempts to return to his meditative state, he realizes that he is grieving again after his reminiscences of Demmie and Humboldt. That is not what he hopes to accomplish with meditation, so he is relieved when he hears a knock at his door, returning him to full consciousness. His relief is short-lived, however, when Rinaldo Cantabile enters with a lovely female companion. Charlie assumes the woman is the gangster's wife, but he is quickly set right when he politely greets her as such. This is not the wife, but Polly Palomino. She is absolutely beautiful, intelligent and far more sensitive and cultured than her Mafioso escort. She was Rinaldo's wife's roommate as an undergraduate in an exclusive girl's college. Now, Polly comes to warm Rinaldo's bed every morning after her former roommate goes off to school. As the discussion progresses, Rinaldo suggests that he...